Saturday, January 13, 2007

Universal Greetings

UNIVERSAL GREETINGSMike Ghouse

Greetings is the oldest form of initiating a conversation when two people meet, it is an acknowledgment of the existence of the other. From a Simple “Hi” to “Hamazor Hama Ashobed”- meaning I am fine and hope you are too. The essence of greetings is “ I CARE” and this statement is flavored by religions, traditions and cultures - all mean goodness, pure goodness.Allow me to greet you in the traditional greetings of different faiths“ Alla Abho” - meaning God is Glorious, that is a Baha'i Greeting –God Bless “ Generalized Christian Greetings”Namaste “ the go(o)d in me invokes the go(o)d in you”Salaam Alaikum “ let you be peaceful and safeJai Jinendra, Shalom Alechum, Sat Sri Akaal and Hamazor Hama Asho Bed, the Zoroastrian greeting. All meaning "I Care about you and your well being" - isn't it beautiful?I hope one day we could free ourselves from all the chains that take away our freedom to be good, to be natural and truly achieve the mukti to use these greetings as synonyms. It feels so good to be free, try it, you will not give it up.Since I am an Indian, I can talk about my own people - you say "Salaam" or "Namaste" to one of us, you will hear the quickest response you can get from a few of us "I am not a Muslim" or "I am not a Hindu". How small can we get? They sound as if you should not have wished them well. The responsibility falls on all of us to help people understand that they are the most beautiful words to greet any one. I would request you to see the new horizons for yourselves by greeting people in any one of the above greetings interchangeably as synonyms. Go by the essence of the words and not the words themselves. You will feel that you have been unchained and you will feel the Freedom is beautiful, once you taste it, you will love it.Have you ever felt the serenity, peace and joy linger in you all day when you help some one that morning? Have you ever felt the pain and suffering of others without regard to their faith, race, culture, ethnicity or any other uniqueness? When you get to that point ‘with malice towards none’, the boundlessness in you and the sense of alignment you feel with the almighty is incredible. It is indeed liberating, it is true freedom, it is worth having it. This is what Jesus may have meant when he said “follow me” and Krishna “surrender to me” and Allah “submit to my will” and you will find the same essence in all spiritual traditions. When you follow, surrender and submit, you have acquired the qualities of God, you have become like him (her/it) all loving, all caring which removes the “you” and “me” barriers. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to the Universe, that’s the salvation Jesus had promised us, Krishna had guaranteed us, Ahura Mazda will supervise it and Allah will deliver it to us.Pluralism is an attitude of accepting and respecting every beautiful way people have come to worship the divine, including but not limited to the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other systems of belief. The moment you believe yours is the only way, the ego takes over and kills the spirituality and the piety in you. Good riddance of ego for ones peace and tranquility is the summation of all religions.” Arrogance and Ego is the mother of all evil.

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REAL ESTATE IN INDIA

INDIAN HEROES

These are the men and women from among Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other traditions that are deeply committed to the idea of One India and one people acknowledging the uniqueness of each one of the Indians.

Their work brings people together, their effort is to restore harmony among Indians unlike some lost souls who are hell bent on pitting one Indian against the other.

Lord Krishna had said, whenever the negative forces become stronger in dividing families and disrupt peace and harmony, he will emerge among them to restore sanity, the same idea is reflected in Quran, that God does not deprive his goodness to anyone and sends a peacemaker to every community and nation. After the founding fathers of the nation, these are our real heroes restoring dharma – the righteousness. Dharma is when people get along, mind their own business, live their lives and let others live theirs. God has created all of us and respects each one of us is the highest form of worship.

I salute them for their work and they come from all walks of life. They see you as an Indian and nothing but an Indian. They believe every human should be free to eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of their happiness.

Please share stories of such Indians who have made efforts to build a cohesive India, an India where no Indian lives in apprehension, tension or fear of the other.

INDIAN HEROES - NEW FROM 12/20/17

PATRIOTISM

Two of India’s dangerous trends: Misplaced Patriotism and intolerance towards different points of view.

The real heroes of India are those who relentlessly “criticize” the government because they do not want their government to falter and make decisions that will mess up the social structure of the nation. They keep the government rascals on their toes. After all, they are elected to serve us not the other way around. The real heroes rise the nation for the common good of all.

What do the Chamchas on the other hand do? They wear a false badge of patriotism and to them patriotism is oppression of those who differ, and war mongering. They cannot handle criticism of government, they are yes sir, yes sir I lick your chappals. They bring down the nation by keeping their man at helm in a bubble giving him or her false assurance that everything is alright.

I hope the Prime Minister wises up and invites and honors those who criticize him, they are the real supporters of him by reminding him from falling into the pit. He should welcome all those who criticize. He needs to defend the rights of such heroes. The Indian Citizens on the other hand need to make a conscious effort to support those who criticize the government, BJP or Congress or any one.

The test of a successful civilized nation is when every man and woman of India can breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell she or he wants to believe.

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

These are the public service heroes; officers who go against their political bosses to do the right thing for India, i.e, every Indian. We will be developing the list as we go forward. You can send in your entries to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

ABOUT MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is committed to his life mission of building cohesive work places, communities and nations. His work is for the Indians and Americans where each one of the 322 million Americans should feel secure without apprehension or fear of the other.

He is one of the 5 people in the world who is actively pursuing research, activism and teaching the subject of Pluralism. Just Google and find a tremendous amount of work on pluralism in religion, politics, society and culture. Mike defines Pluralism as an attitude of “respecting the otherness of other” and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us.

He is a pluralist, thinker, writer, activist and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, politics, Islam, human rights and foreign policy including India and Israel-Palestine. He is a news maker, interfaith wedding officiant and a community consultant and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 300 National TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3500 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1500 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is at www.Centerforpluralism.com and www.WorldMuslimCongress.org

Welcome

We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American. Please join me in the discovery of India on a daily basis, as time permits and share the wealth of knowledge you have on this forum.

DallasIndians@yahoogroups.com is the information exchange center for the Indian community living in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex. You can join by sending an email to: DallasIndians-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com